MP Nick Brown today opened his expenses to The Chronicle and said not everybody in Whitehall was motivated by money.

The Wallsend and Newcastle East representative has not claimed for furniture in his 26-year career and refuses his entitlement to a Government limo because of the £100,000-a-year cost.

Mr Brown drives his own car in his role as Minister for the North East, refusing to claim for petrol or travel costs for that job because he feels it is so important.

But he does take his full monthly allowance of £400 for food, has mortgage interest payments of £374.22 paid for his Newcastle home and claimed more than £3,500 for a new boiler.

Chief Whip Mr Brown said he was “disappointed” in some colleagues who appeared to change their second home to maximise their wealth.

But his stance came as colleague Ronnie Campbell, Labour MP for Blyth Valley, apologised for claiming £6,200 for furniture and pledged to voluntarily pay it back to the taxpayer.

Mr Brown said: “The property transfers, the so-called flipping or whatever they call it, has taken me completely by surprise. The idea never occurred to me.

“I had no idea that people would spend their time trying to play the property market with the allowances.

“I think it is just indefensible.”

He acknowledged being paid a “handsome sum” in terms of his combined MP and ministerial salary of £141,000, but revealed he has not taken recent increases.

“My defence is that it is difficult job and I do it.

“For those who are lying back and seem to have been spending all their time playing the property market.

“And I think that it is pretty reprehensible.”

Mr Brown explained he only changed the designation of his Newcastle and London homes in 1997 when as a minister he was required to declare his main home was in London - and kept it that way since.

It means he claims for mortgage interest payments for his Newcastle property, but insists he got a good deal for taxpayers. The monthly bill has dropped to £374.22 from £554.22 last year.

Mr Campbell said: “I am going to pay back all the money that I claimed on furniture. I moved into a new house in 2004-05. I was sharing with another MP, but decided to get another place. I had to buy all the furniture for my place.

“I didn’t take much with me. I only took the bed.

“But what I am saying is that it was totally wrong and we have now realised that we shouldn’t have been in a position to claim.

“And in future all furniture should be down to the MP not the taxpayer.

“The utility bills, the rent, the interest that is fair enough, that is legit.

“We have to claim that. But furniture, bedding, towels, you name it, that should be down to the MP. That is what I believe.”

Mr Campbell said while he had decided to take the step to repay taxpayers voluntarily it was up to individual MPs whether they followed his example. Mr Brown called for information about MPs’ expenses to be published as quickly as possible, with Parliament then “remorselessly” putting it right.

But he pointed out MPs were away from home for roughly 40% of the year and that cost had to be recognised, although the current system was “open to abuse”.

Mr Brown said: “We, myself, the Prime Minister and other members of the Government made heroic efforts a fortnight ago to put it right.

“And although we got our way in the end, that was in the teeth of resistance including some people who I am not surprised to see in the papers.”

Agreement could not be reached on the additional cost allowance, used to pay for second homes, so was referred to an independent committee.

Mr Brown suggested the system should recognise the time MPs spend in Parliament representing their voters, but admitted it was controversial among colleagues.

Page 2: Food on the go

Food on the go

MR Brown said he needed to claim £400 a month for food because he was so busy in his job.

He said his schedule as Chief Whip, MP and Minister for the North East meant he regularly worked from Sunday evening to Saturday afternoon and had little free time to spend cooking.

Mr Brown said: "It doesn’t actually leave a lot of time and I am eating as I go. I do not have the chance to go home and cook myself a nice meal or spend hours over that.

"You just have to pay when you are out.

"There are all sorts of costs to that and I am damned if I am going to put in receipts for crisps and Kit-Kats and all the other things you eat when you are on the go."

But in contrast to colleagues, there have been no claims for widescreen TVs, beds or swimming pool maintenance. One £429 computer was bought in 2007, while Mr Brown’s kitchen in his Newcastle home is the same as when he bought it.

He said: "I have been an MP for 26 years. I have never submitted a receipt for any furniture at all. Like Michael Heseltine, I buy my own furniture. But that is a personal decision."

One major bill was £3,523 for a new boiler in his Newcastle home in 2005, after a plumber warned it was "not cost- effective" and "no guarantee" of successfully repairing the existing unit.

"It just stopped, but I am entitled to keep warm. So I did claim for that. The thing was completely done-for so I had to have a new one put in."

Mr Brown paid around £250 in cleaning bills a month between 2004 and 2008, but currently does not have a cleaner. This and lower mortgage costs mean he expects his additional cost allowance to be £9,000 lower for 2008-09.

The Commons authorities appear to have only once queried claims, when he went over his allowance for staff salaries last April.

Mr Brown said this was because two staff worked "parallel" for two months before one left, with money transferred from another allowance to cover salaries.

Page 3: Gardens, pools & moats...

Gardens, pools & moats...

SENIOR Tory MPs used their expenses to cover the maintenance of swimming pools and gardening on their country estates.

The embarrassing revelations include a claim for horse manure.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Michael Ancram, James Arbuthnot, and Stewart Jackson claimed for maintenance of swimming pools.

Mr Ancram, the Marquess of Lothian, claimed £98.58 for the repair of a swimming pool boiler, the paper said. He also asked for reimbursement of £1,117.43 for a gardening bill which included "cleaning up moss etc" at a house in Wiltshire.

Mr Arbuthnot, who is chairman of the Defence Select Committee, claimed £1,471 for garden and swimming pool costs, as well as £2,433 "for the expense of our housekeeper".

Tory communities spokesman Mr Jackson also claimed £304.10 for refurbishing his swimming pool. All three have said they will repay the swimming pool costs.

David Heathcoat-Amory, a backbench MP, claimed more than £380 for horse manure, with other items including £2 of mouse poison and £1.95 for sunflower seeds.

Among the other claims were from Douglas Hogg, a former Agriculture Secretary, who expensed more than £2,000 for clearing the moat on his Lincolnshire estate.